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public Observing fromLocation: Greenwich, United Kingdom edit_location_alt
north SunriseRise: 4:45  
clear_day Transit: 12:57  
SunsetSet: 21:10 south
wb_twilight  • Nautical Twilight • What's Visible Now

In Evidence

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Other deep sky objects in Ursa Major
All Constellations »  Ursa Major »  Deep Sky Objects » 

Messier 101 (The Pinwheel Galaxy) - Intermediate Spiral Galaxy in Ursa Major

Altitude: 46.0°   Azimuth: 305.3°   Direction: North-West

Messier 101 is a Intermediate Spiral Galaxy in the Ursa Major constellation. Messier 101 is situated north of the celestial equator and, as such, it is more easily visible from the northern hemisphere.

Messier 101
Galaxy
Ursa Major

Messier 101 is above the horizon from Greenwich, United Kingdom edit_location_alt.

Altitude: 46.0°
Azimuth: 305.3°
Direction: North-West

See also Messier 101 rise and set times.

Given its visual magnitude of 7.86, Messier 101 is visible with the help of a binocular with a 40-50mm aperture or a small telescope.

Available Resources for Messier 101 (The Pinwheel Galaxy) - Intermediate Spiral Galaxy in Ursa Major

Photometric information of Messier 101

The following table lists the magnitude of Messier 101 in different bands of the electomagnetic spectrum (when available), from the B band (445nm wavelength, corresponding to the Blue color), to the V band ( 551nm wavelength, corresponding to Green/Yellow color), to the J, H, K bands (corresponding to 1220nm, 1630nm, 2190nm wavelengths respectively, which are colors not visible to the human eye).

8.46
7.86
6.52
5.81
5.51

For more information about photometry in astronomy, check the photometric system article on Wikipedia.

The surface brightess reported below is an indication of the brightness per unit of angular area of Messier 101.

23.97 mag/arcsec2

Apparent size of Messier 101

The following table reports Messier 101 apparent angular size. The green area displayed on top of the DSS2 image of Messier 101 is a visual representation of it.
23.99 arcmin
23.07 arcmin
28°

Digitized Sky Survey image of Messier 101

The image below is a photograph of Messier 101 from the Digitized Sky Survey 2 (DSS2 - see the credits section) taken in the red channel. The area of sky represented in the image is 0.79966666666667x0.79966666666667 degrees (47.98x47.98 arcmins).

Image of Messier 101 (The Pinwheel Galaxy) - Intermediate Spiral Galaxy in Ursa Major star
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DSS2 image of Messier 101 in the Red band. The green region on the image is a representation of the major (23.99 arcmin) and minor (23.07 arcmin) axes of the object's apparent size.

Messier 101 (The Pinwheel Galaxy) - Intermediate Spiral Galaxy in Ursa Major morphological classification

Messier 101 (The Pinwheel Galaxy) - Intermediate Spiral Galaxy in Ursa Major is classified as Intermediate Spiral (SABc) according to the Hubble and de Vaucouleurs galaxy morphological classification. The diagram below shows a visual representation of the position of Messier 101 (The Pinwheel Galaxy) - Intermediate Spiral Galaxy in Ursa Major in the Hubble de Vaucouleurs sequence.

Messier 101 (The Pinwheel Galaxy) - Intermediate Spiral Galaxy in Ursa Major
Visualization of the morphological classification of Messier 101 (The Pinwheel Galaxy) - Intermediate Spiral Galaxy in Ursa Major, Intermediate Spiral (SABc).
Credits for the background image: Antonio Ciccolella / M. De Leo / CC BY

Celestial coordinates and finder chart of Messier 101

Celestial coordinates for the J2000 equinox of Messier 101 are provided in the following table:

14h 03m 12s
+54° 20’ 56”

The simplified sky charts below show the position of Messier 101 in the sky. The first chart has a field of view of 60° while the second one has a field of view of 10°.

Finder chart Messier 101 (The Pinwheel Galaxy) - Intermediate Spiral Galaxy in Ursa Major star
Simplified finder chart for Messier 101 (The Pinwheel Galaxy) - Intermediate Spiral Galaxy in Ursa Major.

Finder chart Messier 101 (The Pinwheel Galaxy) - Intermediate Spiral Galaxy in Ursa Major star
Simplified finder chart for Messier 101 (The Pinwheel Galaxy) - Intermediate Spiral Galaxy in Ursa Major.

Rise ans set times of Messier 101 from your location

Location: Greenwich, United Kingdom edit_location_alt
Latitude: 51° 28’ 47” N
Longitude: 0° 00’ 00” E
Timezone: Europe/London

Messier 101 (The Pinwheel Galaxy) - Intermediate Spiral Galaxy in Ursa Major is circumpolar and transits at 20:59 UTC (altitude: 87.1°)